Server Version#: 4.64.3
Player Version#: 8.22.0.27533(bdaff3f3) on Nvidia Shield TV
Plex is HW transcoding 4K content but I can play it fine (aka direct play) on my iOS Plex app, Roku Ultra 4k and Kodi (on my Nvidia Shield TV). Any Ideas?
Setup:
Nvidia Shield TV via HDMI Vizio P-65 TV
Sonos Playbar via optical Vizio P-65 TV
Plex server is on dedicated Windows 10 AMD 64bit 3-core CPU
Thanks!
I’m having the same issue, although it is saying direct play failed and then falling back on my 1080p version.
Something broken in the latest client update I think
I’ve had this issue for months. Are we thinking it’s on the Nvidia Shield TV side?
I think so. No problem until today and my app updated yesterday.
Watching the same file with no issue on Xbox
So what do we do? How can we get Plex to look at it? Submit error log or something?
Yeh seems appropriate. I’ve seen that it might also be something to do with files with subtitles selected. Seemed to have the same issue on my phone too until I switched off subtitles.
I’m not sure there’s anywhere to submit a ticket but I did find this:
How to get Help in the Forums - Forum Feedback / Forum FAQ & Guides - Plex Forum
Can someone from Plex let us or myself know if they can help? I can work on generating logs if that is needed? Thanks!
bumpp
Same issue here.
4k HDR10 mkv (UHD rip) is transcoding video on shieldTV with latest stable Plex server on QNAP. “Direct play” works fine on the same shieldTV with kodi with plexkodiconnect and direct paths (SMB). Client says that transcode reason is that audio is not supported even when it is supported ac3 and marked as Copy(ac3). Subtitles enable/disable don’t change the behaviour. My TV doesn’t support HDR10 and is only 1080p but shield TV should do HDR to SDR tone mapping and downscaling clientside without server needing to transcode, right? With older versions it resulted in washed out colors but worked without transcoding if I remember correctly.
That particular set is not my primary watching location. I have a set of three Shields and it works with video direct play on the other two of them which are connected into HDR10 4K capable TVs with same movie mkv file even if I select sound that transcodes (TRUEHD - AAC) with PGS subtitles also enabled.
Well I just installed Plex add-on in Kodi and 4k HDR 10 plays fine without any transcoding so something is wrong with the native Plex app on my Nvidia Shield TV, agreed?
I at least agree.
I also tested that in addition to plexkodiconnect the Plex add-on in Kodi also works correctly without transcoding video. Didn’t work at first but started to work ok after enabling h265/HEVC option in settings.
@doctacarta Can you reproduce and get me the Android log. Your PMS snippet above doesn’t help.
@doctarta hopefully adds his logs.
Attached are mine from client side network logging. Included also playback info from the same session. Transcode reason is saying that ac3 is not supported but it is still copied to client and played ok…
x-men-DP-client-log.txt (57.0 KB)
Can you provide me your server logs too? From the app logs, it shows it requested to direct stream the video but your server changed the decision to transcode.
@anon18523487 absolutely. Here it comes.
x-men-DP-server-log.txt (49.8 KB)
It looks like something is telling PMS that HDR is not supported for playback. Is the Shield set to use HDR? Does the TV you are using support HDR?
No it doesn’t support HDR like I stated in my earlier post above. Shield with version >=8.2 should do HDR to SDR tone mapping client side as far as I know. Prior to 8.2 versions it didn’t have that capability and back then it still direct played HDR videos on SDR display but with washed out colors (10 bit → 8 bit truncate or something similar).
Currently my HDR videos work on that SDR display with plexkodiconnect and/or with kodi plex official addon with direct play. Colors look “ok” while being tone mapped client side.
Shield release notes on tone mapping: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/394826/shield-experience-upgrade-82-released-8262020/?topicPage=6&commentPage=2
I haven’t tried 4k HDR movies on that particular SDR display in a while (year or so) so don’t know which version (client or server) broke direct play.
Would be good if @doctacarta could also provide the logs so we could see whether it is the same or different issue. I believe that his Vizio TV is HDR capable, taken that it is enabled for that particular HDMI input where shield is connected.
So I don’t have a burning issue since I’m currently able to play using kodi and the need to watch HDR on that set is very infrequent.
Above I used term “direct play” on many occasions but it could also be “direct stream” in case that audio only needs to be transcoded.
android_plex_enabledVideoStreaming.txt (4.8 MB)
android_plex_disabledVideoStreaming.txt (4.6 MB)
Attached. First time doing this so let me know if this isn’t what you wanted.
Thanks for your help and have a good weekend!
It says it is HDR but I didn’t know I had to enabled HDR natively on the TV? Attached are the results playing the movie on Kodi vs Plex. It appears Kodi plays the HDR content without any issue while Plex is transcoding the 4k content without HDR? FYI, the HDR mapping option was enabled on both of these tests.
Thanks!
@doctacarta I was simply saying that some TVs need to have HDR enabled in the menu per HDMI (deep colour etc like my LG and Samsung) and some can have it enabled by default or statically without menu items even existing.
Let’s see what comes back after @anon18523487 analyzes your logs.
